Woodstock - April 18, 2010 - Arrrrgggh!!!

Well, my timing couldn't have been worse. Had I launched 15 minutes earlier or an hour later, I think my day would've been very different. As it was, I got on launch right after Bacil and had to wait awhile for a good cycle. I timed them and took a real nice one and got right up to ridge level. The goal was Front Royal airport so I immediately headed North but before I even got to the first finger I was getting drilled and couldn't even cross it. Down, down, down, fast until I was 4-500' below the ridge working a tiny bubble over a little spine coming off the finger. Way down below me over the river I saw an immature bald eagle circling which was cool. Before I knew it he was in my thermal climbing right through me. He dive-bombed me at one point but didn't ever get very close. That thermal got me up 700' over the ridge and I continued North over the first finger. I hit one more light thermal in the 1st bowl that went to 700' over again but that was it. There was a tiny bit of ridge lift and by the time I got to about the 5th finger, I had not run into a single thermal. So back down at ridge level and discouraged I decided to turn back and try to make it back to the main LZ. Fortunately the Northerly tail wind helped me make it as I porpoised over each finger on the return, never more than 100' over the ridge. In fact I wasn't going to make it over the last finger and then found the best thermal of my flight right in the corner which took me up to 1000' over before dissipating. At that point, I turned back North to give it another try. But as soon as I turned North I got drilled again (like never before) and quickly gave up on that idea. Within a very few seconds, I was back down below the ridge. I have never dropped out of the sky like yesterday. Unreal sink. I leveled off about a hundred below the ridge and cruised towards launch hoping for anything. Before I even got there, I got slammed again and had to dive out of the hole straight out from the mountain. I didn't recover from that scraping and I went out to land. Landing was uneventful in the calm primary. I realize now that it was wave-related thermal/wind suppression that I was dealing with on the ridge. Pretty crazy stuff!